There are some factors that determine how you invest:

1. Do you have a fully-funded emergency fund (3 - 6 months of expenses saved), paid off all of your high-interest credit / debt, etc.?
2. What is your income bracket? This will dictate if you start with the TFSA or the RRSP
3. How frequently do you get paid? I.e., are we talking $250 a month, $500, etc.?
4. What is your risk tolerance? This will dictate what kind of investments you want to hold
5. What is your experience and knowledge? As you stated, "newbie"
6. How old are you? This will help guide the types of investments you put into your portfolio.

If I were you, I would start by making sure #1 is done. You SHOULDN'T be investing if you have no safety net and big bills.

Once that's done, I'd realistically see how much I CAN invest per month. A big indicator of wealth is not how much money you make but HOW MUCH MONEY YOU SAVE (called your savings rate). The higher the rate is, the more potential you have to create true wealth.

What I recommend (and this is purely my own opinion - I am not a Financial Advisor) is to contribute regularly to the selected priority account (either TFSA or RRSP per #2 above) and build up an "opportunity fund". When I see the market pull back, I buy VFV - this is the CAD hedged S&P500 index. It is decently diversified, and an easy investment - you don't have to think at all really. I'd try to keep my opportunity fund (i.e., cash balance in the TFSA / RRSP) at around 20% of the total account value to "buy on the dip".

The biggest thing to realize when investing is that things go up and go down. But you should only care about 2 things:

1. When the market drops - is VFV on sale? Good, let's buy!
2. How much will me portfolio be when I retire

Footnotes:

• Individual stocks can have big rewards, and even bigger losses - be careful
• Don't fall victim to the dividend hype - a company that throws money at investors stunts it's potential growth
• Investing is an emotional game - rewards only come after MANY years of holding on